Myself and my wife are in the process of adding our first child to our family. We came to Singapore from Hong Kong in May 2010 and I was on EP for first year then switched to PEP. I'm now thinking I would like to start the process for applying to go PR as I would like to confirm this as my home and bring up my child here.

Me – 35, Irish, working in IT for 19 years, now a multi functional role same company 7 years, education 8 GCSE wage 8k PM married 6 years
Wife – 34, Filipino, not working, diploma in business.

I'm a bit worried that my lack of qualifications might have a down side to my application but I'm hoping the experience might help with that.

Do you guy & girls think that we would stand a chance of getting approved or are we better waiting until after the birth and applying then as a whole family or does that even make a difference?

Thanks

MrB

The right to bear arms is slightly less ludicrous than the right to arm bears!

In theory the qualification issue will have an impact, but it's hard to be sure to what extent. In my case for example I have an HND (diploma), not a degree, but it didn't seem to adversely affect my PEP or PR applications. Experience, skills, salary, etc. will also obviously be important factors. Basically you need to put yourself in the ICA's position if/when you apply for PR, consider what it is that you are offering to Singapore as a permanent resident, and tailor your application accordingly.

As you have been here 2 years you could put in an application now and see what happens, but waiting until your baby arrives would potentially give you more to go with. When you say you are "in the process of adding our first child" (I've not seen it described that way before ), does that mean your wife is already pregnant? If so, do you know whether it's a boy or girl? I assume you're familiar with the whole NS situation for second generation male PRs? A bouncing baby boy ready for NS in due course would potentially improve your chances.

Sorry, I tweaked my post above a bit after re-reading your first message, then I realised you'd already replied.

As regards a covering letter, etc., I would imagine that every document submitted is carefully read and (where appropriate) checked for accuracy / authenticity. I can only give you my experience, which was of course just one of many thousands of applications. For my (and my family's) PR application (submitted in June last year), I spent a fair amount of time getting letters of recommendation, adding an updated CV, etc. I also included a covering letter that briefly explained my background, achievements here to date and the reasons why I wanted to obtain permanent residence here. We later followed up with more documentation for my wife (who doesn't have a paid job), detailing her cultural contributions to Singapore. Eventually we - the whole family, including our two daughters - were all granted PR.

So my personal conclusion from this was that the effort spent on the application was well worth it. If I had just filled in the form and supplied the minimum required documentation, maybe I would still have been successful - hard to know, but I doubt the additional material could have done any harm to my chances.

Good luck for your family expansion and PR application, whenever you decide to do that.

I was really surprised with the amount of people there from the subcontinent at a guess I'd say 80 - 90% of people there.

Had one strange question, my wife being from peens put Asian as race and was told to correct it to philly. thinking back on it now we should have put Eurasian as she it mixed but guess that's to late to change now.

I'm now in the system as Pending and going to try and forget about it and check back after the birth which is in about 2 months. Oh while I think about that we asked what to do if baby comes before answer and was told to wait and apply later as it will be classed as a new submission and will take xx months again.

The right to bear arms is slightly less ludicrous than the right to arm bears!

Good luck for the application and the family expansion, and do keep us updated here as all information is potentially helpful to others.

BTW, regarding the ethnic mix at the ICA, that matches my experience back in June last year. In the current climate one has to wonder about the success rate for those from the subcontinent, but I guess many are applying on the basis of 'nothing ventured, nothing gained'.